Very much under the radar comes the news that the Adelaide-class guided-missile frigate HMAS Sydney (FFG 03) is about to join the US Seventh Fleet, where it will be ”embedded” with a US carrier strike group operating out of Yokosuka. Launched in 1980, the warship is only one of four guided-missile frigates operated by the RAN, and...

Today the Nikkei featured an article (日) that raised once again the possibility of Japan transferring the technology underpinning the prized Soryu submarine to Australia. The article did not offer much additional detail about how the process from here is likely to unfold, although it did frame the technology transfer as part of a supposedly mutual...

Two very interesting pieces of news have surfaced in the last two days regarding the Australia-Japan relationship. On Wednesday morning (日) in New York, Japan and Australia, on the heels of the recent two-plus-two dialogue in Sydney, agreed to further deepening of the strategic partnership, and explicitly committed themselves to making a breakthrough on the Economic Partnership Agreement...

When? Next week it would seem. Hot on the heels of a promise to supply a number of JCG vessels to the Philippines, Japan is now also sending three JMSDF naval training ships to Manila for a four-day port call from 28 May to 31 May. The ships are reported to be the JS Kashima (TV-3505),...

Japan will once again send ships and personnel to an annual U.S. – led humanitarian and civic action program. Japan will send the landing ship, tank JS Oosumi, two Landing Craft, Air Cushion (LCAC) and twenty medical personnel to Pacific Partnership 2012. The Japanese medical personnel will serve on the mission command ship, the hospital...

[cetsEmbedGmap src=http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=208464819395951962634.0004afbffd2c07b0a9c13&msa=0&ll=4.915833,125.332031&spn=61.539901,75.410156 width=600 height=500 marginwidth=0 marginheight=0 frameborder=0 scrolling=no] In the past 10 months, the Asia – Pacific region has seen the following activity: - Increased talk of military cooperation between Japan and South Korea. - South Korea and Indonesia teaming up on a variety of defense projects, including fighters and submarines. - India proposing military...

[cetsEmbedGmap src=http://maps.google.com/?ll=8.21149,113.181152&spn=15.610614,18.918457&t=h&z=6 width=575 height=400 marginwidth=0 marginheight=0 frameborder=0 scrolling=no] Well, this is going to be interesting. US, Japan, Australia announce joint South China Sea exercise TOKYO — The U.S., Japanese and Australian navies will Saturday hold a joint drill in the South China Sea — most of which China claims as its maritime territory — Japan’s...